Friday, March 11th, 2022 to Monday, March 14th, 2022.

Friday, March 11th, 2022

Friday began with a nice surprise for our non-stop flight to New York. We were upgraded to first class. Our flight departed on time and when we landed at La Guardia airport it was a beautiful, sunny day!

We took a cab into the city and checked into our hotel by noon. Our room was ready so we were able to drop our bags and head out to explore. Our room was on the 19th floor so we looked out at the skyscrapers.

We walked past Times Square on our way to Hudson Yards.

On our way we stopped for lunch at Schnipper’s because they were rated as having the best gluten free chicken tenders! They were delicious!

Our next stop was the Vessel in Public Square Gardens in Hudson Yards. We had planned on climbing the spiral staircase with 80 different landings and about 2,500 stairs! Unfortunately it was closed. We didn’t know why until we researched on the internet and learned that there had been 4 different suicides since its opening in March of 2019.

Across the street we walked over to take the elevator up to The Edge! The Edge was the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere! The sky deck was suspended in mid-air. You can look down 100 stories! The weather was perfect to go out on the sky deck.

As we were walking back from the Edge, we came upon an outdoor exhibit called Citrovia. It had thousands of oversized, hand-painted lemons, leaves and trees. It was fun to explore this collection of various lemons!

We had reservations for dinner at Nizza’s an Italian restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. It was delicious. We have eaten at this restaurant before and always enjoyed the selection of gluten free options!

Our day ended with seeing Plaza Suite with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. We really enjoyed the play.

Saturday, March 12th, 2022

We woke up Saturday morning to rain and wind. The weather predicted gale force winds and rain turning to snow! The subway became our popular mode of transportation!

Since the weather was not conducive to doing outdoor activities we hopped on the subway to go visit the Museum of Natural History. We hadn’t been there for many years. We get off at the subway stop for the museum, walked out and saw a line that was about two blocks long. We weren’t going to wait in that long line and we didn’t want to be with that many people either.

The rain had stopped and snow flurries had begun. Central Park was across the street so we decided to take a walk in the park. The park was pretty empty since there were snow flakes and the wind was really gusting! We didn’t last that long either!

One of the stories that the CBS Sunday Morning show covered was the Economy Candy store that was started in 1937. The candy store has over 2000 items!

After checking out all the nooks and crannies of the store and also purchasing a few goodies, we visited a little cafe and got a hot drink to warm up before heading out into the cold again!

We were able to meet our son’s best man who works as a lighting designer in the city! He’s working on a show that will be opening soon so he only had a hour for dinner. We met him at a small place called Bareburger to catch up quickly and eat!

Tonight we were so excited to see the musical Hamilton. We had watched the musical several times with the original cast on Disney+ but we really wanted to see it in person. It did not disappoint.

Even though the weather was windy and very cold, Hamilton was a great ending to the day.

Sunday, March 13th, 2022

The weather was much better today. The sun was shining but it was still chilly. There was a tour of The Catacombs by Candlelight that began at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Little Italy. We had a knowledgeable tour guide and learned a lot about the church’s history and the neighborhood.

When we went down to the catacombs we were given an LED battery operated candle for safety reasons. There were some famous New Yorkers buried there. One of those belonged to Thomas Eckert who was Abraham Lincoln’s advisor and also very wealthy. His was the only catacomb not sealed!

On another episode of CBS Sunday Morning they did a story on the Little Island at Pier 55. It was a 2.4 acre free public park and we wanted to check it out. We took several subway routes from the catacombs to get close to the park and then walked the rest of the way.

After walking all the paths in the Little Island we found a place nearby with to have some lunch with a view looking out over the river.

Our only snafu was missing our show for Sunday evening. The show started at 6:00 PM and we didn’t realize it until well after it started. We thought it was later and that was our fault. 🙁

At least our Mexican dinner was excellent! The restaurant made homemade guacamole and boy was it good.

Monday, March 14th, 2022

This morning we headed to LaGuardia for our flight home. We enjoyed our weekend in New York City. For us it’s a fun place to visit but not to live!